NPR News: 03-31-2025 7PM EDT

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Two key special elections will be held in heavily Republican districts in Florida tomorrow to replace former congressmen Matt Gaetz and Michael Waltz. And with a slim majority in Congress, Republicans are worried about the races as Democrats running for the seats have raised a lot of money for their campaigns.
And Pierce Greg Allen has more. Democrats had other wins in special elections last month in Pennsylvania's legislature that gives them hope that there could be something like a rising blue tide.
Republicans, including President Trump, are worried about losing, though, their narrow majority in Congress. And that's why Trump pulled Congresswoman Elise Stefanik's nomination for UN ambassador last week.
Every seat in Congress and every special election to fill is going to be very important in the months ahead. NPR's Greg Allen in Miami.
The staff at the Institute of Museum and Library Services have been placed on administrative leave according to the union representing the workers. The IMLS is a federal agency which provides federal grant funding to libraries and museums.
As NPR's Andrew Limbaugh reports, without staff, though, it's unlikely that most grants will be fulfilled. The grants provided by the IMLS have supported employee training, new pilot programs, and basic services like computers and internet in rural libraries.
Steve Potash is the CEO of Overdrive, which distributes digital products such as ebooks and audiobooks to libraries. He says small libraries will be most affected by funding cuts, but that impacts can spread.
When a public library, which has growing demand for their online and digital materials, is now getting any kind of budget cuts, hard decisions have to be made. According to the agency, the IMLS awarded more than $250 million in grants and research last year.
Andrew Limbong, NPR News. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq ended their worst quarters in almost three years today as President Trump's tariffs continue to worry investors and consumers.
But another kind of investment is booming. And Piers Maria Aspen reports the price of gold is hitting all-time highs.
A single ounce of gold now costs more than $3,100, and analysts expect it to keep on soaring. Gold is traditionally seen as a safe haven during times of uncertainty.
Now President Trump's tariffs are causing a lot of uncertainty among investors and businesses. They're also sparking fears about higher prices for consumers and the increasing potential for a recession.
Lee Baker is the founder and CEO of Claris Financial Advisors in Atlanta. When it seems like the world is going to hell in a handbasket, gold usually appreciates.
But Baker warns that there can also be downsides to buying gold. What goes up can also come down.
Maria Aspen, NPR News, New York. Wall Street ended the day in mixed territory.
The Dow down 56. This is NPR News.
In Myanmar, state media say the death toll from last week's powerful magnitude 7.7 earthquake has passed at least 2,000. Thousands more are injured.
Rescue crews and family members have been going through the rubble of collapsed buildings and roads looking for survivors. In many cases, they're digging by hand.
The military government has allowed foreign aid to come into the country, and the State Department says USAID team is on its way despite President Trump's cuts to the agency. Rescue efforts are tough in the Southeast Asian country because of ongoing civil war that's displaced millions of people and power outages along with fuel shortages and spotty communications.
Wall Street was in mixed territory. By the close today, the Dow up 417, Nasdaq down 23.
A new blood test may help show whether a person has cognitive problems related to Alzheimer's. And Piers John Hamilton has more on research in the journal Nature Medicine.
Existing blood tests can reveal the sticky amyloid plaques associated with Alzheimer's, but they don't indicate problems with thinking and memory. Dr.
Randall Bateman of Washington University in St. Louis says the new test is different.
It was much more related to memory loss, symptom onset, dementia, stage, all the things that patients care about. The experimental test measures part of a protein called tau that forms tangles inside neurons.

A study found that levels of this protein rise when the symptoms of Alzheimer's begin to appear. Bateman says eventually doctors should be able to use the test to help diagnose Alzheimer's and select patients who will benefit from drug treatment.
John Hamilton, NPR News. This is NPR News.
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